My AdSense Earnings Breakdown – Let’s Compare Stats!

You don’t typically hear from me twice in one week, but my stats show how much you guys love AdSense-related posts, so I hope you don’t mind a double dose of Lisa this week. 🙂

I was playing around in the AdSense Performance reports as I often do, and decided to create a few graphs showing the breakdown of different earnings by category so we can compare our stats. Here are the ones I focused on:

– % of Earnings by Unit Size

– % of Earnings by Ad Type

– % of Earnings by Targeting Type

– % of Earnings by Product

If you haven’t switched over to the new interface (which isn’t so new anymore), then you’re missing some great reports — especially if you’re a stat junky like me.

In November, they will be shutting off the old interface and you will be forced to use the new one. So you might as well get acquainted if you haven’t already.

So let’s start with the first report I ran…

One of the reasons I redesigned my static site was because I wanted a column to accommodate larger widgets, images and the 300×250 AdSense unit. Many of you told me how well the unit converted for you and boy were you right!

My CTR (click through rate) for the right column unit on 2 Create a Website increased by 65% and my Page RPM (page revenue per 1,000 impressions) increased by 59% in August. I also switched from all text ads to text and image ads. The new 300×250 unit was the biggest reason for my record month in August 2011.

For awhile, the 728×90 unit was winning consistently, but it tied for 2nd place last month.

Text ads have always performed best for me so this is no shocker. But I will say that text and image ads on my static site outperform my blog by far. Text ads performed so poorly on my blog, it wasn’t even worth the time and space.

My blog tends to receive traffic from a lot more savvy users (particularly IMers, seasoned Webmasters and bloggers, etc.) compared to my static site. In general, these people are less likely to click on ads. And of course, traffic has a lot to do with it as well. My static website receives a lot more traffic than my blog.

The 728×90 unit is the only one that converts here. I don’t get that many clicks, but my Page RPM (page earnings per 1,000 impressions) is fairly high and makes it worthwhile.

Contextual Ads

I would imagine most of you probably earn more from contextual ads like me. These are the ads that are simply targeted by page content. In general, ads with the best bid and quality score end up on your site.

Placement Ads

Placement ads can earn you more per click because these advertisers are willing to outbid all the contextual advertisers to place an ad on your site specifically. It’s very important to ensure your site is optimized and accessible to placement advertisers.

To do this go to “My Ads”, click “Custom Channels” and click the channels you want to make “targetable.” Next to Targeting, check the box that reads “Show this custom channel to advertisers as a targetable ad placement.”

Prior to doing this, (last Summer) my percentage of earnings from placement ads was 6% of my overall earnings. It is now 12%. That’s a 100% increase. So make sure you set your channels to “targetable” and become accessible to people who want to bid exclusively on YOUR site.

Interest-Based Ads

These are ads that show up based on where the user has visited. So if they were on a car website before coming to your site, they may see a car ad even though your website is not about cars.

I have turned off Interest-Based ads in my account (Under “Allow and Block Ads” / “Advanced Settings”), but I learned that 3rd party networks can still serve them up. So that explains the 7% in earnings even though I have opted out of Interest-Based ads.

This report shows that most of my earnings come from the Contextual ads and images on my site. Hosted AdSense for Content is related to the YouTube Partner program and other 3rd party ads that may show on your site.

This breakdown has been pretty consistent for me over the years. There was a slight increase in the Hosted AdSense for Content over the past year (YouTube), but nothing major. I combined Search and Feeds because they were roughly the same and so low compared to the other categories.

What About You?

So how does your breakdown compare? Any similarities?

Keep in mind, the reporting Interface doesn’t breakdown the percentage. I just did some simple math to figure that out, and I created the pie charts in Excel to make everything easier on the eyes. 🙂

can u help everytime i move something on mypage or edit the type of ad the revenues drop. it doesn recovery even if i put everything back the way it was before. do bids reset when we edit something? i noticed the cpc rate goes down as well. i just move the placement of the ads because of the blogs i read where the best spots are

I am really a fan of your articles and videos. Now after getting inspire I have started my blog based website. Now I really need your advise on my blog. Please advise me for good earning and good ad placements. One thing I have noticed that most of the time my blog ads show only text. My CPC is very low about $0.07 to $0.10. My web site is http://www.urduraj.com

I don’t know if someone have told you that if you can fall in love with someone by just reading her articles. I would like to ask you a question. CAN I MARRY YOU?

Yes…Can I? Am only Joking. Lol. I really love all the posts that you have on here. And you are really helping with all these. I will also heed to your advice on free blogs and your advices. I rarely stay on sites for hours but your break records. Thanks Lisa. I love you.

I wonder if you can help me out (I hope this is the right post).
I have followed pretty much all your advice about channels, ad placements, size, etc. and everything is fine (still waiting on the money coming in, but that’s another matter:) ).
What I have noticed is that if I look at the adsense home page, at the bottom under “main channels” I see some earnings per channel. If instead I look at the top of the page where you have the the estimate earnings for the day (which I think should be the total of all the different channels) I see that one channel is always left out. I have had a look at that one channel, but I can see nothing different compare to the other ones, so I can’t figure out where the problem (assuming there is a problem) might be.
Have you got any idea what that might be? I have tried to read some of Google’s blurb on this topic, but found nothing relevant.
TIA

Dear Lisa,
i had read you web and i really interested with how to earn money with google adsense, but what i do concerned is i don’t have some knowledge with programming and website, but now i’m in studying with programming and website also!! could you tell me more detail of which google adsense providing?? thanks!!

Ive been noticing that my sites tend to get clicks, and therefore revenue during the first few days of the month, then all I get are just impression revenues from then on. I feel google is throttling ads from CPC to CPM

there is already ads for my friend adsense account, but i wnat know the this blogger is suitable for adsense account or not,
so i am launching a new website how to create that and how to approve that to adsene i need help

hi guys ive read all posts here and im glad to have found a community of people that are hands-on with Adsense…. I’m setting up a article directory – something almost like ezine articles, I have been developing the application from scratch and will use my writing and SEO acumen to contribute articles while also opening the platform for other writers to submit quality and original content that will be moderated….. somebody just give me some advice/tips on Adsense relevant to my article directory approach … Lisa your footprints are an inspiration! What actually got me to this page is your prized confirmation on one of your pages here that Adsense definitely works…! keep it up ….

hi guys ive read all posts here and im glad to have found a community of people that are hands-on with Adsense…. I’m setting up a article directory – something almost like ezine articles, I have been developing the application from scratch and will use my writing and SEO acumen to contribute articles while also opening the platform for other writers to submit quality and original content that will be moderated….. somebody just give me some advice/tips on Adsense relevant to my article directory approach … Lisa your footprints are an inspiration! What actually got me to this page is your prized confirmation on one of your pages here that Adsense definitely works…! keep it up ….

Well, I have spent the last two weeks redesigning my site and tweeking it. Got page one ranking on page one for adsense marketing tips for newbies. Yet traffic is still down. Google is frustrating me with their own ads taking up any page that talks about making money on the internet. Started SEO proceedures on the 50 or so posts I have left. CTR seems a bit low so I changed my ad types and TEST TEST TEST grrrrr grrrrr grrrrr. Would yall care to give my site a critique?

Before I builded my first website I read one of your great articles and was inspired to use Google Adsense.
My first check from Google in 2008 took 3 months but it sure has changed since. I now earn about 2K+ a month based on 6 websites.
Work hard and work smart and Google Adsense will give you income. That is for sure.

Thanks for the inpiration.

BTW. I know the 300×250 is good but the 336×280 is even better in my opinion. More than 70% comes from this unit.

Hi, Lisa and everyone. I am new on your blog and after reading this article i feel this could be right place to ask.
Almost 2 months ago, I decided to try to publish a recipe website with google adsense ads.
Earnings in those 2 months. are just around few dolars. Is that normal? Page RPM for most efficient 300×250 ads is under $0.3. I have red that some people have $50+ Page RPM 🙁 Is my site performing so badly because of non-english language, or maybe because website is new? Please give me some advice. Thanks!

For Ms. Navarro,
Keyword Targeting using my simplified explanation is optimizing a specific web page to “key in” on a specific key word or phrase that pays the highest amount. Whereas the keyword “mortgage” may not pay as high as the phrase “mortgage orange county”. (Which I recently checked on using Google’s Key Word Tools) due to the volume than it would be for the national target using the key word “Mortgage”. It’s Google’s way of allowing you to compete with the big boys. In this case, you would probably make an additional 10 – 15% more per click than you would if you were lucky enough to receive a click for the key word “Mortgage”. This is just one of many forms of targeting. Now all you have to do is write 3 individual articles targeting, three more pages for every possible variation of the word “Mortgage” thinking like someone searching for a”mortgage”, and you might luck out and get one of those pages ranked high enough to get found on the internet. Otherwise you can target “every-city-in-the-us-mortgage” and have a greater chance of getting found somewhere. Think “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.
God I hope this comment doesn’t make me sound like a tool…lol

hey lisa,honestly i jealous you with passion over months i start this social site http://www.coolnaija.com but am not getting better money from adsense,even have not gotten my pin and i have mailed them but they said they send my pin since 2 months i have not seen it,please what do i do

Can you please give me an advice in my particular case? I have a blog about house music which has around 7.500 pageviews/month (250 / day), a Google Page Rank of 3 and my Google Ads get around 8-12 clicks / day. I think that is pretty good, but unfortunately my CPC is very low…I usually get just 0.02$ per click.

Can you please give me some advises on increasing my CPC? Is there anything I can do?…or the keywords that i have are just too low paid and I have to find a different topic? Thanks!

I have noticed that my dating advice posts perform much better with only image ads as opposed to just text or text and image. My student finance related posts do much better with text ads only and not text and image or just text.

Naturally I think the finance related posts give more options that may appeal to a user when there can be 4 text links in a box instead of one image ad.

dating ads with pictures of girls are going to get more clicks than a text ad about a dating site.

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, I must admit that when I look at your site, and the clear and concise way in which you present your content, I am envious. I too have been working on the net since 98 and had some success and more failures than I am willing to admit to. I have just begun actually attempting to earn an income through adsense advertising, and the $26 dollars I made month 1 on my site and $35.00 month two indicates I may be on the right track.

However, I began experimenting with geoTarget marketing recently with emphasis in the Southern California market for Patio Covers and Custom Wood Decks. Although I hold several page 1’s for some of my keywords, I watched in horror as my traffic dropped when using WP Multisite to create additional sites for Dallas, Houston, and Tulsa. I think I shot myself in the foot with duplicate content, although my rankings in Orange County and Los Angeles seem to be holding their own. Even after 13 years building and optimizing websites, I must admit that even for me, it still bust my rump trying to get the most from each page view.

Anyhow, I love your site and hope one day I can pull a few paychecks like you are doing. I tend to think your pretty face on YouTube might have something to do with it. God knows if I put my mug up on the net, I may have to find another occupation…lol

Lisa thanks for the information. I have implemented the tips you gave on one of my sites http://genuineselfhelp.blogspot.com ….but, I did not turn off the interest base ad because google warned it will lead to drop in traffic ……….or what do you think? My site is quite old yet performs poorly in adsense.

I wish I was making a lot of money with Adsense. I have a bit over $2 total earned on Adsense. I just started to really use it on my main blog and my Youtube videos though, so I guess that’s good. Made $0.28 last month. I make way more through other methods.

I am new to this Adsense stuff and have been looking up tips I need to set up one. i have followed most of your videos on youtube and it has given me much insight. I want to say thank you for the work you are doing here.

I need your with the following two questions:

1. What is your view on opening an adsense account via a third party site and how does this work in details?

2. Can someone open more than one adsense account and/or how would it go?

Thank you for breaking everything down for us and sharing with us in great detail. That really helps me to know what kind of ads are performing on your sites. I’ll keep that in mind when I create more of my sites and pick particular ad sizes.

hi lisa, i am in lot of confusion that i have a website and it is a fitness website and now i want to start a fitness blog but i am confused whether to start a different blog with different domain name or to use a sub domain like you did with 2 createawebsite.com and blog as subdomain.what are the benefits of using a blog as subdomain instead of making a different blog with with different domain name. Can you please clearify and help me lisa.